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100 New Audio Books You’ll ♥ When I started my boycott of Amazon over a year ago. I was fully prepared to completely give up my stream of income from selling books online. The boycott forced me to consider other options and that was one of the top 3 things I ever did with this website! I not only did selling books directly dramatically increase my revenue through online book sales, I also get my customer information which Amazon kept for themselves -- never sharing with affiliates. Sure, it is much more labor intensive physically, and administratively, selling books directly, but the revenue, from book sales, is an order of magnitude higher -- more sales and larger orders. I've hired someone to do the extra work. I'm able to sell audiobooks through a partnership with Libro.fm. I've already made more money with Libro.fm, in less than 6 months, than I did selling Amazon's Audbile ebooks and subscriptions in the past decade! Libro.fm shares customer information with their partners too! I recently started working with Hummingbird to sell ebooks. Unlike Amazon's ebooks, which you can only read on a Kindle; you can read your hummingbird's ebooks on ANY platform -- including the Kindle. Libro.fm may begin selling eBooks too. If they do, I will like switch over to them. As far as buying books that are not showcased on AALBC, you can always use Bookshop.org. They share 10% of the book's price with AALBC. You do not need Amazon. Boycott them for your book buying needs and improve the book ecosystem -- especially for Black books. Look, the pandemic is going to kill some Black-owned bookstores. A miracle occurred in late May, and white folks flooded Black owned bookstores, like AALBC, with record levels of sales. Some stores, overwhelmed, could not handle the surge, and did not benefit from the store-saving business. To be clear we will still lose some Black owned books stores, due to the pandemic. Bookshop.org helped some stores by giving them a platform to sell books on the web, but those sales do not benefit the stores nearly as much as being able to sell books directly. Unfortunately, most Black-owned bookstores do not have the ability to sell books on the web, if they do, they don't have the ability to scale. Over the long term Black-owned book stores and websites like AALBC continue to need your business not just to survive but to grow. The last 12 month has been phenomenal for AALBC. Records in every measurable category: traffic, book sales, and advertising -- during a global pandemic no less! This is ONLY because some of you have chosen AALBC over Amazon -- full stop! This has allowed AALBC to improve tremendously! Readers, authors, and publishers all benefit for having an additional platform celebrating Black literature.

Recently an article was published on the Oprah Magazine website, “119 Black-Owned Bookstores in America That Amplify the Best in Literature.” While I was not attributed as a source of the list, I know I was because my bookstore list contains at least one bookstore that is not a bookstore . But the list was widely copied so who knows where they sourced the info (including my rouge “bookstore”). Unlike many of the other sites which used the list, Oprah Mag at least included AALBC as a store, so I’m good. Oprah Magazine also created another article, "12 Authors Share Their Favorite Black-Owned Bookstores." This is was an really cool thing to do too! One of the 12 authors, Mitchell Jackson, even cited AALBC.com as his favorite bookstore! But here’s is the thing, and it is a big deal, when mentioning the author’s books, the Oprah Magazine did not send readers to a single Black-owned store. Instead they linked to a white-owned business (bookshop.org), for the book sales — missing a tremendous opportunity to direct those sales to Black-owned bookstores’ websites! It is fine to say how much you support indie booksellers, but the biggest thing supporters of Black-owned bookstores can do is to send book buyer to our stores and websites. Far too many “supporters” send book buyers link to Amazon, and now increasingly, to Bookshop, while voicing support of Black owned bookstores (read more on why linking to Bookshop.org does not support Black-owned Bookstores). Several authors have told me that they don't want to show favoritism for one Black independent over another. However these authors easily show favoritism by linking to Amazon or Bookshop. In 2020 no one needs to be told they can buy a book from Amazon, and Bookshop gets free promotion that really was intended for Black-owned stores If you want to support Black-owned bookstores, stop promoting Amazon and promote a Black-owned bookstores instead! I know most supporters of Black-owned bookstores simply don’t know this, and this is why I'm writing the message. I didn’t know either; While I've been selling books, on the web for almost 23 years, most of that time I was selling books as an Amazon affiliate. Despite my advocacy for Black owned bookstores, I was completely unaware of how my affiliation with Amazon was undermining independent booksellers. Once I started selling books directly, boycotting Amazon just made common sense. However replacing Amazon with Bookshop is only a marginally better solution. Amazon pays affiliates 4% and Bookshop pays 10%, far less that what an indie bookseller would make on a sale. You have to actively support Black-owned stores if you believe they are important. The idea that Amazon has the best prices is often not true, so that argument no longer holds. Often books sales on Amazon are actually fulfilled by third parties anyway, so Amazon is not really adding any value. Indeed, they are reducing value by acting as an intermediary who make money on every transaction with zero risk. The American Booksellers Association (ABA) used to tout an solution called Indiebound.org which allowed supporters of indie bookstores to provide book links without showing "favoritism" to any particular bookseller or linking to Amazon. For example, if someone wanted to provide a buy to Mitchell S. Jackson's book, Survival Math: Notes on an All-American Family they could use a link like this: https://www.indiebound.org/book/9781501131707. Once the book buyer reached the indiebound site they could enter a zip code, say my local zip code 33647, and a list of local booksellers would be shown. Indiebound would send readers to local indie bookseller sites to complete the sale. It seems like the ABA is pushing the Bookshop solution which is a mistake in my opinion, but again I advocate for independence. Reliance on Bookshop or Amazon to process our book orders and take most of the profit, is the opposite of Independence. Clearly Amazon wants us to be dependent upon them. I doubt Bookshop is any different. Now I understand that some brick and mortar booksellers are unable to sell books on the web and the pandemic has only made things worse by closing some — not all — physical stores. But imagine if the Black independent booksellers, who can handle the sales, got the business that we are sending to Bookshop. Support Black-Owned Booksellers.

I write this article for the multitude of wild-eyed idealists who joined political campaigns thinking they could be a part of movement to deliver change only for their aspirations to be aborted by the established order. I especially write this missive on behalf of the legions of Obama volunteers who had their hopes dashed by the harsh realities of who the first black president became once he entered the White House. This issue is very personal for me. In 2008, I put all my hopes in Barack Obama only to witness in depressing fashion as my faith was returned with faithless cynicism. However, I am not alone in this bitter taste that has yet to leave my mouth; an acerbity that dances across my palate each time I hear Obama lecture us about the brokenness of our government that he was complicit in wrecking for eight years. As I’m writing this, I am mindful that there are countless thousands of Bernie supporters, Ron Paul loyalists and Howard Dean enthusiasts, to name a few, who also put all their chips in a politician only be hit with the snake eyes of the old guard. If there is one thing that is bipartisan in DC, it’s the way dreamers are used as stepping stools to advance the agendas of political insiders. My foray into the world of political organizing traces its roots to 2004 when I heard Obama give the “red state vs blue state” speech at the Democratic National Convention. I was marooned knee-deep in doldrums at the thought of John Kerry being the nominee and realizing that the Democrats seized yet another opportunity to miss an opportunity. My gloomy mood was lifted instantly when a man I never heard of—with a name that should have been a political non-starter back then—walked up to the podium and lit the convention hall and millions of living rooms around America on fire with his elocution. Like sirens luring unsuspecting sailors, Obama tapped into a deep desire that Americans had to get over the politics of division as he spoke from the mount of unity. Alas, as much as I swooned at his inspiring speech, the feeling of exuberance did not last too much longer as John Kerry got swift-boated and our hopes got torpedoed by Karl Rove. I swore off politics after that year; tired of Democrats fielding feckless candidates, I told myself that I was not going to bother anymore. I had just turned thirty, I did not want to waste my youth on a venal system that was domain of “old white men”. My swearing off did not last past the next election cycle; in 2008 I fell off the wagon and was pulled right back in by the same man who captured my imagination four years earlier. Initially I was hesitant, I did not want to commit to a “black” man knowing full well that the Democrats would find a way to pull the rug out from underneath him. However, as I observed his campaign—the more I listened to his speeches—I decided to stop being a passive observer and became an active “Obama foot soldiers”....continued... Trust me, this ain't that type of article, this is about accountability ....read full article here: https://ghionjournal.com/hope-lives-obama-loyalist-inclusive-justice/

Divine Consciousness, From a Dystopian Diaspora to Afrofuturism is a compelling, must-read available now from artGriot® Publishing. This book considers the past in confronting the present while preparing for our future. Our past and present have been subjugated, in part, by a decidedly human threat from those in control. Dystopian societies are marked by mass suffering and great injustice but are not just relegated to stories of fiction. We have been and continue to be in a dystopian state throughout the Diaspora. However, we don’t have to remain trapped in this state, nor consider that our ability to finally overcome could only exist in a distant future. We must choose to define and control our present to ensure the future we want. And, an “Afrofuture” is not just a thing of science-fiction or imagination, but something truly attainable. Afrofuturism is not just another “ism,” nor is it just science-fiction, or Sun Ra, or the Mothership Connection, or Supa Dupa Fly, or Black Panther, as though these are the only defining examples of Afrofuturism. As I will discuss later in the book, Afrofuturism is not non-Western mythologies, mysticism, or Black magical realism, nor is it an imaginary trip to Wakanda. Further, there is no yellow brick road to get to it, nor is it a far-off utopia or alternative outer-worldly destination like Saturn for Black folks to chill. It is real and attainable and necessary for all of us in the face of an indifferent and inimical world, not just regarding Black lives to matter and equality, but Black exceptionalism and free choice. Pursuant to the subtitle of this treatise, From a Dystopian Diaspora to Afrofuturism, I don’t define how we get “from” and “to.” I don’t refer to it as a transition or shift or even pivot, but a journey. James Baldwin said this about the meaning of a “journey”: “A journey is called such because you cannot know what you will discover on the journey. What you will do, what you find, or what you find will do to you.” The journey to Afrofuturism is just that, a journey. We will be traveling from one place, a dystopia, to another, our future as Black people. And this journey to Afrofuturism requires a divine consciousness, as it is our destiny if we choose.

@Chevdove I will say a prayer that you find some peace in all of this turmoil. If you like to join me at 28 minutes passed the hour for a minute.

Send me a copy, and I'll add it to the site if you like. AALBC 302 Reconciliation Way Tulsa, OK 74120

@Troy I used them to get my audiobook on Libro.fm and I posted on my experience with the process here on the site.

Hey, sis....I got nothing but love for you also. And you can through brother Gibran into the mix.

YES, St. Maurice and The THEBAN legions!!! LOL @Pioneer1 no comment. I hope that we can discuss and debate without jiving and insults! @Pioneer1 @daniellegfny But, I just popped in to say, I am very stressed right now--I just got a call that my father is deteriorating and he is in nursing home. They have him isolated. They're making my Dad suffer and I am overwhelmed.